Meniscus Tear experience?

Hi all. I am really sad. The knee pain that's been bothering me ever since I started running (last year) is due to a meniscus tear. It's minor said the Orthopedic that it doesn't need surgery. But she suggested that I should try biking or swimming if I want my knee to be completely healed.

Ortho suggested 1-3 months. I'm really troubled. She said if I can't stop, that I should just run 3 times a week.

I walked today for an hour, but was really itching to run, so I ended up running a short 3 miles after. lol.

I really don't want to give up running, since I already invested so much in it. But I'm worried though. I am thinking of switching to biking...which I don't like since it's expensive.

So, to those who have experience this problem, how long did it take your knee to be completely healed?

I am dealing with one now, so it seems. My PCP feels that is what I have. Waiting for Ortho and MRI to confirm. I have stopped running because my knee occasionally buckles under me when I run. It also started hurting when I run.

As much as I don't want surgery, I do want to run. I did find some exercises to strengthen quads and calves that are supposed to help. I just found them yesterday, so haven't tried them yet. You could Google that though.

I am dealing with one now, so it seems. My PCP feels that is what I have. Waiting for Ortho and MRI to confirm. I have stopped running because my knee occasionally buckles under me when I run. It also started hurting when I run.

As much as I don't want surgery, I do want to run. I did find some exercises to strengthen quads and calves that are supposed to help. I just found them yesterday, so haven't tried them yet. You could Google that though.

Good luck, hope you can continue to run.

Yeah, ortho said if it hurts when you run, that means your body is saying something. It won't heal If you still feel pain.

I do have 8 exercises that my PT showed me to strengthen the knee. It helps a bit.

I feel like I'm in limbo. don't know what to do. If I should rest for 3 months. It's seems too long for me not to run.

btw I saw your thread before making this topic the other day. Did your Dr. Do an xray first? If he/she did and still request an MRI, you might get surgery. I'm just guessing. Cause my ortho saw my xray, she was able to tell that I don't need surgery.

she said put ice 3 times a day. What I'm worried about is, I'm not an active guy. And running is all I know to keep me fit. i'm worried that if I stop, all my bad habits will slowly comeback. Like eating junk food. Lol.

No xray. He said my symptoms were classic medial meniscus tear. I can point to exactly where it hurts. I haven't gotten my referral for MRI or Ortho yet. I decided to give it week of rest to see if it helps at all. From what I have read it seems unlikely.

I'm torn as well. I'm not in pain all the time, and the pain is not horrible when I do have it. Nothing like my hip labral tear in 2010, which was awful. So I keep thinking of all the $$$$ for the MRI and possible surgery vs living with it. Running is my main exercise so if I can't run I will be cranky, not to mention I have Fibromyalgia and exercise makes me feel better, I could just walk, but it isn't the same. I have an exercise bike and elliptical but get so bored inside. I'm also older, so chances of it feeling better probably aren't good. I don't know what to do either. After my week of rest is up I will slap my knee brace on, if it still tries to buckle on me and is still painful pushing off my toes, I will ask for a referral.

lol. Same here, if I don't run, I feel really tired/low energy on that day. Especially if I don't run for 3 days or more, I start to freak out.

Bad timing too, cause I have two new shoes I've been itching to try out for a run. lol.

Anyways, it's better to be safe than sorry. If they sent your referral already, try calling them. Everything is computerize now. It should be there now. That's what I did. I called the Ortho dept. and they received the referral already.

@crazyrunner- I'm struggling because it doesn't hurt all the time. Mainly up down stairs, pushing off my foot with my toes sometimes and if I twist or pivot. I guess I'm comparing to my hip labral tear which was horribly painful and i was in pain 24\7.

I am going to try to run on Monday and see how it is.

I take it you had the surgery? What was the recovery like? My PCP said it would be a breeze compared to my hip.

My left meniscus went first, during a winter training run home from the office. I had a partial meniscectomy, took 3 months off from running (more painful than the meniscus tear), and went back running. About a year later, the right meniscus had the same problem. Another meniscectomy and 3 months off. The surgeon advised that I should stop running and take up cycling. I whined. He said that if I choose to run, I should keep the distance short (10k or less) and run "spritely" (i.e., not heavy-footed, like at the end of a marathon). He also advised that, like many runners, I just ran and should also be doing strength-building exercises related to the muscles that support the knee and compensate for the meniscus. I've run 2 marathons and a bunch of other distances since then. I hope your knee challenges turn out to have as favourable outcomes.

I had the surgery on a Friday and went back to work on Monday. I started crying mid day though because I was a wuss back then and it wasn't a desk job . I ended up gong back home that day. lol. Tuesday I was better, but I limped for a few weeks. When they went in they discovered my ACL was torn. so I'm a tad dif than most people. I wasn't a serious runner back then. I played recreational soccer, but I think I started running about 8 weeks later.Most athletes that I know have had it taken care of and are back out there like they didn't miss a beat. I guess you could put it off and see what happens, but I think eventually you will need to have it fixed sooner or later if you want to continue to run so you might as well now. That's just my opinion though

I suggest getting it fixed. Mine simply would not heal, and hurt all of the time. I ran for 3 years in pain, and finally couldn't take it any more. So, I had mine fixed 3 years ago, and it's no factor at all now. Mine was a non running sports injury, exacerbated by running. I'm a low volume runner, and so depending on how much you run, results may differ

It did take awhile for me to get back though, because I rushed back way too quickly and it got inflamed really badly the first year, post surgery. I also later got PF terribly, as part of the rush back, which actually is what completely shut me down for the year.

So, of the last 3 years I took basically a complete year off, and finally have turned the corner. Had I been smarter, my recovery would have been much quicker. For reference, I'm 50, and before surgery I averaged 25-35 miles a week, and PR of 3:00 marathon. Now finally back to similar mileage and around 3:15 In my most recent race. With taking the post surgery PT and ramp up smarter and conservatively, I believe you can come back much sooner than I did. it's not a death sentence. And honestly, I have many other physical things I like to do, so it wasn't really a big deal for me if I had to shut it down, because I was in so much pain. I know others feel differently. Good luck.

It really depends on how extensive the tear is. I wouldn't recommend anything until the MRI results are back.

From personal experience, I had three "small" tears to the medial meniscus. It's taken me a while to get back to running. When I was being stubborn and not doing the exercises my PT told me to do, I would run, knee felt great, but would hurt like hell that evening while trying to sleep. Once I got serious about the actual rehab, My knee has felt better almost daily. I did the strengthening exercises every other day. Do the exercises your medical team recommends, but not until.

I'm nearly a year out from the actual injury. There is no doubt I could have been back running much sooner, had I followed the medical advice. I know it stinks, but you can't rush rehab.

I am a 52 year old male that weighs 200 pounds. I just had surgery on my left knee for 3 meniscus tears. It was the second surgery on that same knee, with the first in 1990. I have also had meniscus surgery on my right knee in 1997. I have returned to running each time. In fact all of my 16 marathons were after my first two surgeries. The last one I had May 12th is now healed and I returned to running after 5 weeks off. My doctor supports running very much and advised me to keep running as the benefits far outweighed any negatives. He emphasized the importance of keeping my quads and calves strong to help keep the knee strong. One thing I have learned in my 52 years and feel very confident in is that Doctors like anyone else cannot keep their own personal opinions out of their views on whether to continue to run or not. There are many Doctors that smoke and adamantly deny that it is harmful.

This is just my .02 as I've had an ACL reconstruction and medial meniscus repair surgery. It'll depend where the tear is on the meniscus as to whether it can heal on its own....part of it has a blood supply so it can heal itself, but most of it does not so it's either deal with the tear or get surgery. Yes, you can do PT exercises to strengthen your leg muscles to better support the knee, but trying to run around with a tear is not only painful and uncomfortable but can cause arthritis and other nasty degenerative stuff to go on in your knee joint. Depending on how bad the tear is, they'll either trim it or repair it. The repair has a longer recovery, but you'll still have all of the cushiony goodness of a full meniscus in there.

I had a similar issue. I tore my lateral meniscus doing weightlifting, but I'm really more of a runner. I ignored it for a few months and continues to weightlift and run on it. It was a bad idea. I ended up turning a radial tear into a complex tear. I had a meniscus repair surgery two months ago--- I couldn't walk for a month and won't be able to run for many months more. I recommend giving in a chance to heal so you won't have to be out even longer.

I have the same issue, just waiting for the MRI this week to confirm the doctor's educated guess.

I have been experiencing a lot of pain at night on the inside part of my knee which has prevented me from getting much sleep.

After my doctor's visit I did some research (i.e. read a lot of stuff on the internet). Seems there are certain opinions that say that surgery is often not the best option, and in many cases there is no improvement in recovery compared to people who just did PT.

One of the main issues seems to be tight hamstrings which contribute to the knee pain.

In my case, I immediately started doing a series of hamstring stretches. The improvement has been startling in that I do not have the night time knee pain, and my whole leg feels looser.

I will keep up the stretching his week and see if I can run without discomfit. If I am able to then I will probably not do any surgery.

Just back from Ortho, waiting on call for MRI schedule. No change in diagnosis. Torn medial meniscus still the educated guess.

He said I had some minor swelling and boy did he find the spot that hurts, I nearly jumped off the table. He said I can do any exercise I want as long as it doesn't cause pain. May put off surgery ( if that is his recommendation) until mid September as I have a 10k in August and a 5k Sept 13 that are paid for. We shall see.

Just back from Ortho, waiting on call for MRI schedule. No change in diagnosis. Torn medial meniscus still the educated guess.

He said I had some minor swelling and boy did he find the spot that hurts, I nearly jumped off the table. He said I can do any exercise I want as long as it doesn't cause pain. May put off surgery ( if that is his recommendation) until mid September as I have a 10k in August and a 5k Sept 13 that are paid for. We shall see.

Did you tell the ortho that you have a race coming?

Me, I stop running ever since I posted this topic. My diet and exercise all goes the drain. lol.

Today, I sign up for swimming class since it's been ages the last time I've been in a pool. I'm gonna try swimming tomorrow, to see if I like it. Just to fill the hole before going back to running in 3 months.

Thanks for the update btw.

I don't even feel like doing the exercises the PT told me to do for knee strengthening. lol.

I did not tell him that I have races coming up. I figured i would wait until my follow up after the MRI. Then we will know for certain what type of tear it is and if it is more important to just get the surgery now, or can it wait a bit.

I braced it and ran yesterday. The doctor said a brace wouldnt do anything but it makes me feel more secure as it does give oitnon me sometimes. Well a run/walk. I walked up and down the hills since those are painful. I did a run walk in the flat areas. Ran and if it hurt stopped and walked a while then tried again. I did ice it after my shower as it was pretty stiff and hurting then. So, not really certain how running is going to work after all. Thankfully my 10k is not very big and I have a friend who is mostly walking it so, I might just stick with her and baby the knee. The 5k is the Electric Run, that is so crowded it is hard to run anyway. Several friends doing it with me are walkers so I will just stick with them!

I'm sorry you are having a hard time. I have been struggling in with food choices as well. Try to force yourself to do the exercises, I know it sucks to be on the DL, just that they might help you get off sooner.

I had a small medial meniscus tear and had it fixed before it became a big problem, back in 2005. Since then, years of running and cycling have not been a problem. The only time I felt any kind of knee pain since having it fixed was during the last few miles of a 50k trail race last fall. That was the most abuse my body has ever experienced and my knee recovered just fine. If it's just a small tear, you can have it scoped and you'll be back in action in no time.